Friday’s Buzz: 2.22.13

After an extensive three-week campaign, the Senior Class Gift concluded Wednesday and netted $29,693.81 with a 96.1 percent participation rate of the class of 2013. Additional participation incentives including $10,000 scholarships, dollar-for-dollar matching and a $100,000 challenge brought in around $250,000 of extra funding. Though the participation rate was nearly 1.5 percentage points lower than last year’s record-breaking 97.5 percent, the campaign featured the largest number of volunteers, with 170 students working as coordinators, college representatives and class agents.

At a talk sponsored by the International Students Association and South Asian Society at Yale, law professor Oona Hathaway LAW ’97 honed in on the civil and legal issues surrounding unmanned aerial vehicles and called for a debate about the United States’ use of drones. In her talk, titled “The Legality of Drone Strikes,” Hathaway focused on three key challenges drones presented to the U.S.: the erosion of checks on the president’s power to wage war, the proliferation of drones at home and abroad, and the threat to civil liberties that the use of drones might pose to American citizens.

When it comes to corporate partnerships, a class of graduate architecture students is saying “just do it.” This semester, an advanced design studio taught by visiting architecture professor Greg Lynn and School of Architecture critic Brennan Buck is partnering with Nike Inc. to explore buildings in movement. As technology evolves, Buck said, architects are delving further into the possibility of not only creating the illusion of motion in a building, but also using robotics and sensory mechanics to build structures that actually move. While it is rare for studios at the School of Architecture to work so closely with corporate sponsors, Lynn said Nike’s focus on movement in design makes it an ideal resource.

THE WEATHER

High of 38 degrees, low of 28 degrees, increasing clouds and wintry mix.